December 09, 2009

Alfred Pedersen, Sneglehuset/Shell decorated house

Sneglehuset is the name of a shell decorated house located in Tyboron in the community of Bjornehaven, Denmark. Bjornehaven is one of the main fishery ports of Denmark, so it is no surprise that this shell house was created by a fisherman.

Life and works

Fisherman Alfred Pedersen (?-?) in 1949 began the project and has been working on it for some 25 years.

The story is that he promised mrs Pedersen when they just were married, that he would make their house so beautiful that people from all around would come to take a look.

Once he had decorated the exterior walls of his house, he decided to build another one adjacent to the original one so as to have more walls to decorate. In this way the 14 m high tower, that is part of the complex, was established.

The shell decorations on the exterior wall in general are applied to a blue or gray surface. The interior has been abundantly decorated too, although the basic color there is not blue or gray, but a kind of yellow-brown.

Inside there are also folkart items on display, such as little ships in a bottle made by Danish fishermen during the long, dark wintermonths.

Since 1975 the Sneglehuset is a museum, currently managed by the next generation of the family. Many websites refer to the site from a touristic point of view, most of them repeating the same, generallly known facts.